Howie Hawkins, who finished third in the 2010 Governor's race, will announce that he is again seeking the Green Party nomination for Governor.

The announcement will take in the LCA press room (LOB) in Albany on Wed. April 9 at noon. Hawkins will outline his campaign program.

Events will also take place during the week in Syracuse, Buffalo, Rochester and NYC.

In 2010, Hawkins ran on a platform of a Green New Deal, calling for the state to invest in the transition to a carbon neutral economy as a way to provide living wage jobs to put New Yorkers back to work. His job creation program also included investments in education, infrastructure, mass transit, sustainable agriculture and public jobs. He opposed the austerity budget proposals and tax cuts for the 1% promoted by his Democrat / WFP / I and Republican / Conservative opponents. Hawkins campaigned for a ban on hydrofracking and a transition to a carbon neutral economy within 15 years. Hawkins is a strong proponent of single payer health care and an end to the war on drugs.

Hawkins has been critical of this year's budget, with its: support for more tax cuts for the rich and charter schools; underfunding of education, mass transit, human services, jobs, environmennt and anti-poverty programs; and inaction to end the culture of corruption at the Capitol. Hawkins has called for a $15 an hour minimum wage and allowing local communities to set their own minimum wage and taxes.

Howie Hawkins has been an organizer for peace, justice, labor, and the environment since 1967. A former Marine, he helped organize opposition to the Vietnam War. In the 70s and 80s, he was a leader in the anti-apartheid divestment movement to end US corporate investment in the system of racist labor exploitation in South Africa. He was a co-founder of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in 1976 and the Green Party in the US in 1984. He is a member of the socialist organization, Solidarity. Howie works at UPS unloading trucks, where he is a member of Teamsters Local 317 and active in Teamsters for a Democratic Union, US Labor Against the War, and the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare. He received 40% of the vote in his recent run for Syracuse City Council.

The Green Party is committed to the principles of ecology, grassroots democracy, social and economic justice and nonviolence. Hawkins won enough votes in 2010 to restore official ballot status to the Greens. The Green Party statewide nominating convention will be held in the Capital District on May 17.